The present invention relates to an application tool for use in application of electrode paste to end surfaces of chips of electronic components or to a rectangular plate-like collective of electronic components.
In general, a chip of an electronic component such as a resistor or the like is obtained by a process in which a rectangular plate-like collective body of electronic components is applied at its opposite end surfaces with an electrode paste, and is then broken at given positions into chips. For applying the electrode paste to the end surfaces of the chips in the above-described process for manufacturing an electronic component, such a tool as shown in FIG. 10 has been conventionally used. In FIG. 10, an application tool 11 for applying electrodes to end surfaces of an electronic component is comprised of rotary rollers 12 and 13 provided parallel to each other, paste reservoirs 14 and 15 for storing electrode paste provided under the respective rotary rollers 12 and 13, and doctors 16 and 17 slightly separated from the respective rollers 12 and 13 over the paste reservoirs 14 and 15 of the rollers at the sides remote from the central area where the rollers 12 and 13 confront each other.
When the rotary rollers 12 and 13 are driven by a driving means (not shown in the drawing) such as a motor in directions shown by arrows a and b, respectively, the electrode paste in the reservoirs 14 and 15 is adhered onto the surfaces of the rollers 12 and 13, and the film thicknesses of the adhered electrode paste is controlled to be uniform by the doctors 16 and 17. A collective body 18 of electronic components having a rectangular plate-like shape is carried in between the two rollers 12 and 13. Then, by bringing the rollers 12 and 13 near the collective body 18 are brought into by the contact with the opposite end surfaces of the collective body 18. Thus, the electrode pastes are applied onto the opposite end surfaces of the collective body 18 because of the existence of the above-described contact between the rollers 12 and 13, and the collective body 18.
However, the above-described conventional application tool can not handle many collective bodies of electronic components at one time since the conventional tool requires the collective bodies to be applied with electrode paste one at a time. Moreover, the condition of the contact between the rotary rollers and the collective body presents many unfavorable problems to the process such as determining of electrodes to be applied and the position where the electrode number paste is to be applied.
Although the foregoing description is related to the case where the electrode paste is applied to a collective body of the electronic components, this process can be used to apply electrode paste to individual electronic components after a collective body of electronic components.